Is DIA a Commodity?

I get many requests for sub-$10 per MB bandwidth. If you want it that cheap, your best bet will be Cogent or HE -- if you are near their POP. Generally speaking, the cheapest bandwidth is only available in one of these 7 hub cities: Atlanta, Dallas, NYC, LA, Chicago, San Jose, or Virginia. And in those cities, you have to be in a specific colo facility (56, 1 Wilshire, EXP, Infomart, etc.).

In most Tier 2 regions without a telecom hotel, $20 per MB is a good deal!

Some carriers, like Ma Bell, charge for a loop inside telecom hotels. It's not in their blood to sell port only with just a x-connect. Even if you are in the same MMR. The domain knowledge inside the carriers is dwindling with each layoff.

When you are just looking to resell Dedicated Internet Access to your customers as cheap as possible, I guess DIA is a commodity. But if you are selling routes, it isn't.

Rob Powell points out, "Western regional fiber operator 360Networks finished a fiber build for Advanced Data Centers. The build consisted of diverse laterals into the company’s McClellan Park facility, which sits on an former Air Force Base. According to ADC, they can now offer low latency 2.3ms connectivity over to major data centers in the SF Bay area while not having the same earthquake risks. That’s the first time I’ve seen low latency pop up in a PR for such a west coast route, hmmm."

Moreover, Yipes (now Reliant or somebody else, I can't keep track), WV Fiber, Above.Net and the start-up Allied Fiber, sell DIA on a diverse path or a specific route (like to Asia or Europe or Mexico -- where does the traffic need to go?). These carriers even sell DIA based on Latency. The lower the guaranteed latency, the more expensive the pipe.

CDNs (content delivery networks) like Limelight and Akamai kind of sell latency. Moreso, they sell high availability of content as close to the consumer as possible. But it isn't bandwidth they are selling. It's more like routes.

Just a new way to look at DIA.